One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant turnips is to use the USDA zone info for El Centro.

Planting Calendar for Turnips

Frost tolerance for turnips:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably a bad idea to plant turnips until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant turnips in El Centro is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant turnips and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your turnips may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your turnips indoors.

Last Frost Date

In El Centro the average date of last frost happens on January 31. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for El Centro may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in El Centro you get surprised by a frost after January 31 so make sure that you are ready to cover your turnips if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for El Centro

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in El Centro

You may be interested in your other planting guides for El Centro.